‘Grease’ fan theory speculates Sandy and Danny were dead all along

A new fan theory on Reddit has speculated that either Danny or Sandy were dead for most of Grease.

According to the theory, there are clues scattered throughout the 1978 film, not least that the flying car is a metaphor for a dying Sandy ascending to Heaven.

The theory states that the plot strands of the film end too happily, with Rizzo not pregnant after all and Kenickie deciding that he does love Rizzo. “Everything is suddenly OK, just the way sweet Sandy would have wanted it to be.”

It posits that Sandy, played by Olivia Newton-John, is lying dying in a coma on the beach. In ‘Summer Nights’, Danny doesn’t manage to save her from drowning after all. The line “Goodbye to Sandra Dee” is supposedly a clear reference that she didn’t survive.

One Reddit user responded: “Explain Grease 2”, which drew the response that some people stay in a coma for a long time.

During the thread, another user speculated that it’s actually Danny – played by John Travolta – who is dying, not Sandy. He drowns in his attempts to save Sandy, inventing her name because they’re on a sandy beach. The rest of the film is his vision of how he would have liked his life to play out – a whirlwind romance, building his dream car, beating his rival and graduating high school.